StarDestroyer.Net BBS

We all know that Trek takes the award for the most technobabble, but Star Wars has it's moments, for example:

"Visual Sensors/scanning" - Looking around

"Refresher" - Bathroom

What examples of Star Wars technobabble can you remember.

2000AD wrote:"Refresher" - Bathroom

How is that technobabble? It's a perfectly normal colloquial term. Why do you call the bathroom a bathroom? A lot of these rooms don't even have baths. Some people call it a restroom. Do you rest in it?

When you're on a military starship, you probably aren't going to say:

"Look around with the cameras"

Saying "Use visual scanners" sounds professional, which you'd expect on a military ship.

Pablo Sanchez wrote:

2000AD wrote:"Refresher" - Bathroom

How is that technobabble? It's a perfectly normal colloquial term. Why do you call the bathroom a bathroom? A lot of these rooms don't even have baths. Some people call it a restroom. Do you rest in it?

"A rose by any other name..."

Those examples mean something, and are used in the real world.

Master of Ossus wrote:

Pablo Sanchez wrote:

2000AD wrote:"Refresher" - Bathroom

How is that technobabble? It's a perfectly normal colloquial term. Why do you call the bathroom a bathroom? A lot of these rooms don't even have baths. Some people call it a restroom. Do you rest in it?

"A rose by any other name..."

Also, it's a term with history in science fiction. Read the old Andre Norton SF and other authors of the same period, especially the writers of the juveniles, and you'll find the term "fresher" used where modern mariners would use the word head. Also, there's the fact that most modern Americans tend to use the term restroom even though they're not "resting" there.

"Visual Sensors/scanning" - Looking around

I took that to mean scanning based on simple light particles. Passive scanning, essentially. It transmits what the eye would NORMALLY see (if it had 720 degrees of vision) and computes possible targets based on that information.

The only true example of SW technobabble is when Han Solo is talking about those 'alluvial dampers' in ESB.

It is, because alluvial means "pertaining to, or composed of alluvium", and alluvium is some kind of sediment.

Well, there's a good bit more technobabble in the latest ICS than I would've included. Personally, I think Mr. Saxton went a bit overboard in terms of trying to describe things down to the smallest fictional detail. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty cool and stuff (no mention of "quantum flux"), but frankly, I think he should have just stopped with "This is what THIS does, and it works somehow".

Just like the Heisenberg Compensator.

Master of Ossus wrote:Just like the Heisenberg Compensator.

Lol, that is tragically bad.

I like the way the creator said to the Trek fan asking how it worked "Very well, thank you".

Admiral Valdemar wrote:

Master of Ossus wrote:Just like the Heisenberg Compensator.

Lol, that is tragically bad.

I like the way the creator said to the Trek fan asking how it worked "Very well, thank you".

Yeah, I heard that quote. On the other hand, I can see how that would be necessary for ST. It cannot possibly exist, but it has to in order for the show to work.

Well, do the techical terms in the ICS mean something? In the Jedi Starfighter cross-section, there is a vent for "disposal of waste mesons", and a meson is an unstable particle with a quark and an antiquark, I believe. That probably insists that mesons are a by-product of the laser cannons firing.

StarshipTitanic wrote:When you're on a military starship, you probably aren't going to say:

"Look around with the cameras"

Saying "Use visual scanners" sounds professional, which you'd expect on a military ship.

Quite. IIRC in the USN the official term for cameras used for target aquisition is 'electro-optical sensors.' This kind of stuff basically jargon.

BTW more naval jargon here: http://www.hazegray.org/faq/slang1.htm http://www.hazegray.org/faq/slang2.htm

Don't forget the midichlorians. They are the worst Technobabble ever on SW.

What is the definition of 'technobabble', by the way?

IMHO, if you're using lengthy words with unecessary scientific jargon to describe/explain something that simple words will do, then that's technobabble.

I don't think 'alluvial dampers' or 'midi-chlorians' as technobabble. They're probably just common colloquial term in Star Wars galaxy....

Midi-Chlorians had a stated meaning: "The life forms that inhibit all things". The word can't be broken up, and no real words that don't describe it accurately were slapped in, so IMO, it doesn't qualify as technobabble.

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:IMHO, if you're using lengthy words with unecessary scientific jargon to describe/explain something that simple words will do, then that's technobabble.

Such as describing a black hole as a "quantum singularity"??

Quantum Singularities are real technobabble, so I can't vote one way or another. Is it legitimate babble if it's the RL term?

Acutal quantum Sigulatires are not Tecnobabble per say they simple refer to a Black Hole that is very very small, IE on the Quantum level

The offical deffintion of Tecnobabble is words that have nothing to do which each other strung togther

So A Flash-Supresseor and Anti-Recoil Mounts while tecnocal are not tecno-babble

Meanwhile a Quantum tri-modulated manfiold inducer would be Tecnobabble Because Quantum(Small) Tri(Three) Modulated(A certian Frequancy) Manifold(Car Part) and Inducer(Something that cause somthing else to happen) would be pure tecnobabble

Actually, "manifold" has many meanings. It can be used as an adjective to describe things that are multiple. In math, it is a set of numbers that share many properties. It is also a pipe with many fittings for multipl connections. Still, a "Quantum tri-modulated manifold inducer" would still be technobabble. Just an interesting tidbit.